Dastryth and Errantkeep

Lacking any single powerful ruler such as Montand or Strychan, the southern Naelax lands are a hodge-podge of small landholdings and feuding minor nobility. Armies may charge high fees for allowing anyone to cross the lands of their petty lord. So trade has declined sharply away from the Flamni in particular where the militias and well-trained river excisemen of Carnifand and Roqborough protect merchants from over-zealous private militias. However, while there is no central focus of power, there is no shortage of intriguing places and people.

These twin landholdings are held by brothers, Darrien of Dastryth and Marinn of Errantkeep. The brothers are both animuses, despite their lowly status in the hierarchy of the House of Naelax. Each owns a small walled castle, with a village of some 1,000 built around it. In both cases, the townspeople have all been slain and animated as zombies. The brothers are wholly deranged, and their lifelong rivalry has degenerated into an open blood feud. Their undead armies skirmish constantly in the lands between the settlements, though the brothers themselves do not take to the field, staying in their castles.

All this, and the deserted lands around (since virtually all farmers and their kin have fled), would be of little interest save for the fact that each brother has something of real interest in his castle. Darrien owns a manual of golems and has two stone golem guards at his castle gates; this work is of Old Suloise date, very ancient indeed, and its final pages, if read, conjur into the mind of the reader apocalyptic events from far-distant Suel history. In Carni fand, it is rumored that spies of the Scarlet Brotherhood came seeking this work, but were foiled by the golems and Darrien himself. Why they should be so interested in it is unknown.

Likewise, Marinn owns a unique tome which gives some details of Tenser's castle and the many designs, traps, and servants it contains. How he came into posses sion of it is unknown. Marinn is too crazed to realize its value, and at the present time no one knows that he owns it. However, Mordenkainen and others are seeking this book, and when they learn who has it, they will surely take steps to acquire it—with or without Marinn's agreement.